In one embodiment, the invention provides a method and apparatus for a wide area file system, including: creating a peer-to-peer wide-area file system that allows read and write sharing of data. In another embodiment, the invention provides a method and apparatus for a wide area file system, including using per-file replication to achieve high availability and performance in the wide-area distributed file system.
Legal claims defining the scope of protection, as filed with the USPTO.
1. An apparatus for a wide area file system, the apparatus comprising: a plurality of distributed nodes configured to create a peer-to-peer wide-area file system that allows read and write accesses of files maintained in said file system; and wherein a node of the plurality of distributed nodes is configured to select m existing replicas for a file contained in the file system, where m is an integer that is at least 3, to select an existing replica closest to the node, and to select m−2 replicas by a random traversal from the existing replica closest to the node.
2. The apparatus of claim 1 , wherein the nodes are configured to maintain a graph of replicas of files contained in said file system.
3. The apparatus of claim 1 , wherein the nodes are configured to propagate updates on a per-file basis.
4. The apparatus of claim 2 , wherein the nodes are configured to exchanging updates in a peer-to-peer fashion.
5. The apparatus of claim 1 , wherein the nodes are configured to create a replica of a file in said file system whenever the file is accessed.
6. The apparatus of claim 5 , wherein the file comprises a directory.
7. The apparatus of claim 5 , wherein the file comprises data.
8. The apparatus of claim 2 , wherein the replicas include core replicas.
9. The apparatus of claim 8 wherein a core replica is related to maintenance of a hierarchical name space.
10. The apparatus of claim 2 , wherein the replicas include non-core replicas.
11. The apparatus of claim 1 , wherein the nodes are configured to remove an inactive replica.
12. The apparatus of claim 1 , wherein the nodes are configured to randomly select a plurality of replicas.
13. The apparatus of claim 12 , wherein a plurality of regions includes at least one of the selected replicas.
14. The apparatus of claim 12 , wherein a local region includes at least one of the selected replicas.
15. The apparatus of claim 1 , wherein the nodes are configured to add a non-core replica to the graph.
Cooperative Patent Classification codes for this invention. Click any code to explore related patents in that topic.
December 9, 2002
November 20, 2012
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